The Artist's Mother

Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865 - 1931)

Artist/Maker

Artist: Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865 - 1931)

DatesSigned: Signed 1896

Material / Technique

Tempera on canvas

Dimensionsh x w: Mått 33 x 29 cm h x w x d: Ram 49,5 x 45 x 13 cm

Inventory numberNM 1773

AcqusitionPurchase 1914

Other titlesTitle (sv): Konstnärens moder Title (en): The Artist's Mother

DescriptionDescription: The artist’s mother, Mathilda Gallén, is portrayed here as a strong-willed person with a firm sense of purpose. Stretching out behind her is an enigmatic symbolic landscape. Mathilda Gallén was an amateur painter and shared her son’s interest in spiritualism and theosophy. In 1897 she served as his model for Lemminkäinen’s Mother, a subject from Finland’s national epic, the Kalevala. Gallen-Kallella, who collected Japanese art, introduced a Finnish nationalism coloured by Far Eastern influences.

Depicted Person

Mathilda Gallén (1833 - 1922)

Motif categoryPortrait

Collection

Paintings (Paintings)

MaterialTempera, Duk

TechniquePainting

Keyword

Porträtt

External links

Wikidata: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q18573940

Additional texteDescription: This is the artist’s mother in a remarkable, enigmatic portrait. Intimate and monumental at the same time. On the one hand a spitting image, on the other a sculpture in a dreamlike landscape seemingly situated beyond time and space. The portrait is dated 1896, the year before Akseli Gallen-Kallela cast her as the main figure in one of his most famous paintings, Lemminkäinen’s Mother – a motif inspired by Finland’s national epic, Kalevala.